Posts Tagged by ellice engdahl
It should come as no surprise, given the founder of this institution, that our digital collections already contain hundreds of items related to Henry Ford’s son, Edsel. We’ve just expanded this selection by digitizing some of Edsel’s childhood artwork. My personal favorite is this bear, made of brown thread stitched into paper and likely created when Edsel was between 5 and 10 years old, but other pieces include family portraits, highly geometric works, and slightly later, more sophisticated works. View these and other items related to Edsel Ford in our online collections.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
Detroit, Michigan, 19th century, 20th century, 1910s, 1890s, Ford family, Edsel Ford, drawings, digital collections, childhood, by Ellice Engdahl, art
You may have visited Greenfield Village and some, or maybe all, of the structures it contains. But did you know we also have extensive documentation and photographs of these buildings in our collections? This summer, intern Molly Malcolm is working with Curator of Public Life Donna Braden and Curator of Domestic Life Jeanie Miller to collate information about some of our buildings and add it to our collections management system. As part of this effort, we are also digitizing selected photographs showing the structures on their original sites, people related to each building, and the dedication of the buildings in Greenfield Village. We started with the A’s, so first up is the Ackley Covered Bridge. View more newly-added Ackley-related material in our digital collections, or jump to this specific dedication photo, featuring an apparently less-than-impressed guest in the lower left. Watch the blog and our collections website for more buildings to come!
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
Ackley Covered Bridge, Greenfield Village buildings, Greenfield Village, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl
The Henry Ford has hundreds of items in its collections related to American political campaigns, from 19th century examples to much more recent material (see this and/or this, depending on your personal political leanings). Earlier this year, we digitized some of our paper lanterns, and we’ve just added a number of our campaign buttons. This one shows support for Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Fairbanks in the presidential campaign of 1904. View close to 200 examples from our political campaign collections, including the recently added buttons, on our collections website.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
The Henry Ford has always attracted famous visitors—some of my favorites that are documented in our digital collections include H.G. Wells, Neil Armstrong, and Rosa Parks. But while searching our collections database for something else, I found a name I wasn’t expecting: Lord Mountbatten.
Lord Mountbatten (1900–79) is a fascinating and controversial figure in British and Asian history. The great-grandson of Queen Victoria, he was commissioned as a naval lieutenant in 1920, and held several naval posts during World War II. As supreme allied commander of the Southeast Asia Command, he took Burma from Japanese control, which resulted in an honorary title, Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Continue Reading
travel, 20th century, 1970s, Michigan, Dearborn, Europe, photography, photographs, Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village history, Greenfield Village, by Ellice Engdahl
By now, you likely have heard the news that The Henry Ford has partnered with Litton Entertainment on a new national television show, coming this fall. But this isn’t the first time The Henry Ford has hosted TV crews—far from it. In preparation for the big announcement, we’ve just finished digitizing selections from our collections that document some of our previous broadcast adventures, such as this image showing the filming of an ABC-TV show in 1963. Watch for posts on this material coming soon on our blog; in the meantime, please browse our collections website to see some of the highlights, including various dates of the “Today” show; Gladys Knight and the Pips on "The Phil Donahue Show in 1973"; our first television show series, “Window to the Past,” dating back to 1955; and perhaps my favorite, a laser light show filmed at Menlo Park Laboratory in 1989.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
TV, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl, The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation
John Margolies has spent decades traveling the roads of America and photographing roadside attractions, restaurants, shops, and motels. Many of them are in varying states of abandonment and decline, but harken back to the excitement of 20th century road trips and the unique commercial designs they spawned. The Henry Ford recently acquired about 1,500 slides by John Margolies, and is digitizing selections by Chief Curator and Curator of Industry & Design Marc Greuther, including this drive-in cleaners’ sign photographed in 1987 in Oregon. View more selections from the Margolies collection on our collections website.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections and Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
popular culture, roads and road trips, Roadside America, John Margolies, by Ellice Engdahl, digital collections
Toy automobiles have been around since the very early days of the automobile, though trends in these toys have changed over time. One category that reached a peak of popularity in the 1960s and 1970s is slot cars, scale vehicles run on a slotted track that both guides them and provides electrical current to power them. The Henry Ford received a donated collection in the early 1990s that contains about a dozen and a half slot cars, plus supplies, track pieces, and other accessories. We’re in the process of digitizing these, including this Indy slot car. Visit our collections website to view the remainder of the recent additions, and watch for more to come over upcoming weeks!
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
racing, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl, toys and games, cars
Summertime is fast approaching, and that means it is ice cream season. The Henry Ford’s collections contain ice cream containers, ice cream makers, sundae dishes, and more related to this icy treat. We’ve just digitized some of our holdings related to ice cream, including this mid-20th century tub intended to hold Velvet ice cream.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
The Henry Ford holds a collection of firearms ranging across centuries: from a 16th century musket to an early 20th century shotgun. We’ve just digitized some noteworthy examples from the collection, including this striking German Wheel Lock rifle dating from around 1637. Be sure to visit our collections website to see several dozen firearms, accessories, and related items that we’ve digitized, including detail shots for many.
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections Initiative Manager at The Henry Ford.
Just Added to Our Digital Collections: More Quilts from The Quilt Index
The collections of The Henry Ford contain several hundred quilts. As an earlier blog post noted, 120 of these can be cross-searched with other quilt collections on The Quilt Index. We have also been adding our quilts to our own collections website, including this striking red and white Lady of the Lake patterned version from around the turn of the century. View our quilts on the Quilt Index or our collections website, and watch for more to be added!
Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.
